By CAROL DEMARE Staff writer

Published 1:00 am, Saturday, January 9, 2010

STOCKPORT -- A farmhand was in custody Friday charged with confronting a mother at gunpoint in her apartment and raping her in front of her children, State Police said.

Within an hour of the attack, a trooper spotted the suspect's car based on a description provided by the victim and broadcast to police agencies in Columbia County, State Police Senior Investigator Gary Mazzacano said.

Victor Orozco, 24, was arrested at his residence on a Sutherland Road farm in the town of Chatham and charged with felony counts of first-degree rape and first-degree burglary.

Orozco was known to the victim, and he was aware her husband was out of state, Mazzacano said.

On Friday, police executed a search warrant and allegedly found a loaded .45-caliber handgun and a ski mask in the suspect's car, Mazzacano said.

The 22-year-old mother arrived home from work Thursday about 8 p.m. with her 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son when she was confronted by the masked gunman, the investigator said.

After the assault, the intruder left and the victim called a relative who came to the apartment immediately and called 911, he said. The 911 call was recorded at 8:19 p.m., and troopers and Investigator Eric Barnes from the Livingston barracks responded, he said.

Barnes and Trooper Gary Mazzacano Jr. broadcast to patrols throughout the county the information provided by the victim, who recognized her attacker's voice and saw his car in the parking lot of the apartment, the investigator said. Trooper William Hogencamp from the Kinderhook barracks spotted the car.

The suspect "knew the victim through her husband's family," Senior Investigator Mazzacano said.

"People in the neighborhood were extremely upset and concerned for their safety, which they should be, but this wasn't a random thing," the investigator said. "She was specifically targeted by this individual."

Orozco allegedly "jimmied his way in," Mazzacano said, and the door was locked when the mother arrived home so she wasn't suspicious of a break-in.

The suspect did not steal anything, and the burglary charge pertains to his unlawful entry, armed with a handgun, and his intent on committing rape, the investigator said.